14 Ways to Observe Pornography Awareness Week

Coinciding with the horrors of Halloween is Pornography Awareness Week.

Sponsored by groups including Concerned Women for America (CWA) and Morality in Media (MiM), the goal of the week is "to educate the public about the extent of the pornography problem and what can constitutionally be done about it." These are powerful groups lobbying Washington and state capitols to adapt Biblical principles for governing, and to weaken what they label the "so-called separation between church and state."

Their suggested activities for the Week include urging the Attorney General to enforce obscenity laws; demanding that convenience stores stop selling X-rated mags or DVDs; and pressuring presidential candidates to promise to prosecute "illegal pornography."

They also pledge to "raise awareness" of how pornography harms every single person in every single community. In other words, their goal is to lie, cheat, misinform, frighten, confuse, and manipulate. Unfortunately, they've been very successful. One strategy is the White Ribbons Against Pornography (WRAP)--literally wearing white ribbons to invite conversation about pornography. (They presumably considered but discarded the White Garter Belt Campaign.)

I totally agree with the idea behind WRAP. I support increasing everyone's awareness of pornography use in this country: how many people watch it, who these people typically are, how it affects them and their relationships, how pornographers work hard to screen out underage performers, what Americans' rights are regarding possession of erotic material, etc.

Of course, I have a fact-based approach to this phenomenon rather than WRAP's emotional, say-anything-to-get-people-to-stop approach, so I propose a different set of activities to observe Pornography Awareness Week.

To counter the obscene lies that our media and legislators will be hearing this week, perhaps you could do one (or more!) of the following:

* If you use porn, talk about it with your partner.* Thank the clerk in your local convenience store for carrying porn magazines or DVDs.* Thank your local hotel for carrying pay-for-porn, even if you personally have never stayed there. Alternatively, write to a national chain that carries pay-for-porn (and has been bullied about it by groups like Citizens for Community Values), such as Marriott or Westin.* Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper explaining that most people who use porn have no problem with it.* Write about this on your own blog. Tweet about it: "I use porn and my sex life is fine," or "I use porn and my sex life isn't very good--but it has nothing to do with porn."* Invite your partner to share her/his concerns about porn with you.* Instead of a White Ribbon, wear a Plaid Ribbon. When people ask, say it's for Porn Awareness Week and your gratitude for the First Amendment.* Start a conversation with someone: "Did you know that the Bill of Rights says NOTHING about exempting porn, obscenity, or indecency from our Freedom of Speech?* Send a few bucks to the ACLU, National Coalition Against Censorship or Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance. They protect your right to read, watch, and jack off to whatever adult material you like.* Write your mayor or governor reminding them that you vote--and that you have no problem with porn.* Memorize this fact: in the real world, porn is NOT connected with violence against women, child molestation, or divorce. In fact, the FBI says these problems have all declined since the country was flooded with internet porn in 2000.* Memorize this fact: the adult industry NEVER knowingly creates or distributes child porn. They're smart business people, not clueless idiots. The government has only identified two underage performers in professional films--both of whom produced sophisticated false identification--in over twenty-five years.* Memorize this fact: using porn does NOT cause brain damage, erectile dysfunction, or loss of sexual interest in one's mate. Other things do that, but not porn. Any claim to the contrary is junk science.* Use some. Guilt-free.

Bonus: What to say to people who say that pornography causes most of America's problems.

* "Of course some rapists and wife-beaters use pornography. So do 50,000,000 other Americans, and it doesn't make them rape or beat anyone." * "Of course some people watch way too much porn. Other people watch way too much football, reality TV, or the Weather Channel. That doesn't mean there's something wrong with any of them."* "Porn doesn't make men withdraw from their wives and girlfriends. Men withdraw for a variety of reasons. No pictures or stories can compete with a satisfying sexual & emotional relationship with a live person."

I wonder if you've ever read the PT blog of Marnia Robinson and Gary Wilson, "Cupid's Poison Arrow." They believe that the new Internet porn is so powerful on the brain that it can lead to hyper-masturbation and the destruction of marital sex...in fact, any kind of real-time sex between partners. That is, real life can't compete with what's available online.

For example, this post about how porn-induced sexual dysfunction is a growing problem:

There has to be a confounder. My boyfriend and I both watch porn when away from each other but we prefer real sex. Many of these marriages you speak of were probably flawed sexually in the first place. A lot of years of marriage can dampen sexual desire.

"Memorize this fact: using porn does NOT cause brain damage, erectile dysfunction, or loss of sexual interest in one's mate. Other things do that, but not porn. Any claim to the contrary is junk science."

There have been other articles in PT that talk about the risks of internet porn, addiction and erectile dysfunction. What about the Sex Addict who has marathon sessions on internet porn sites while compulsively masturbating. According to the new standards coming out for diagnosing addiction, brain change, whether you want to call it damage or not, would be evidenced. Furthermore, intimacy with a real partner loses out because it can't possibly compete with the novelty and intensity of the images you can find on the web, possibly causing erectile dysfunction and loss of interest in a partner.

If you're trying to make a general statement that porn does not do these things inherently and it's the addict that does this to him/herself then I guess that would be fine, but shouldn't Porn Awareness Week actually about Porn Awareness and not just glorifying it? I have no problem with porn's place in our culture, but there is such thing as too much of a good thing.

As someone who classifies himself as a struggling/recovering porn addict, I believe that downplaying the addictive qualities of porn--as this blog post does--is irresponsible.

Furthermore, the statements that "most men who use don't have a problem with it" or that porn doesn't cause "brain damage, erectile dysfunction, or loss of interest in one's mate" actually seem inaccurate to me. I don't have any numbers nor have I seen any brain scans, but I get a sense from all the forums I browse regarding this issue that these statements are probably false. (Also, if any scientists or psychologists have the guts to do some research on this stuff, I will gladly volunteer my addicted brain for the cause).

Like Dr. Klein, I am against the lobbyists behind Porn Awareness Week who view the porn issue as a moral or a religious issue. I'm an atheist who believes in science (although I do believe science can be behind, like when scientists said smoking cigarettes was a perfectly healthy way to relax).

Speaking of cigarettes, I believe people should have a choice whether they want to smoke or not. However, people should be made aware of the health risks and the addictive qualities of smoking. Similar to porn, I don't judge people who use it, nor do I think using porn will people into rapists and/or child molesters. However, I do believe that people should be informed of what they're getting into.

When I made the decision at eighteen years of age to give the old internet porn thing a whirl, I was grossly misinformed by irresponsible "sex experts" who told me it was harmless. I wish I had known the truth.

I'm glad the upcoming generation of youngsters have people like Gary Wilson, Marnia Robinson, Dr. Steven Hayes, Dr. Michael Twohig, and Dr. Jesse Crosby who talk about this issue in an informative light. I didn't hear such reasonable dissenting voices when I made my misinformed decision to start watching porn. All I heard were religiously-zealous moralists on one side saying watching porn is evil, and "sex experts" (ones who remind me of Dr. Klein) on the other side saying watching porn is harmless and will help you blow off some steam.

And so, to conclude, I would like to ask PT bloggers to be more responsible with their posts in the future. It kills me to think there might be a porn virgin out there somewhere who stumbles upon this post and leaves thinking, "Hey, maybe I should give this old internet porn thing a whirl."

I am absolutely appalled by the original article written by Marty Klein. Porn is absolutely harmful. While not everyone gets addicted there physical affects that happen to the body which can EASILY lead people to addiction. Here is a bit from an article posted on PornHarms.com. There are MANY MORE articles out there where brain scans were completed showing there ARE physical affects on the brain.

Good luck to you fighting this addiction. A good book you may want to try is "Every Man's Battle" by Fred Stoeker. God Bless!

PORNHARMS.COM

“Online porn is to sex addiction what crack cocaine is to drug addiction,” says Robert Weiss, director of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles. Weiss is a longtime sexual-addiction counselor who is helping the military set up treatment programs.

If you watch a brain scan of a sex addict looking at porn, it lights up exactly like the scan of someone on cocaine, Weiss says. Here’s what happens:

As the brain interprets pornographic images, it releases adrenaline into the bloodstream, speeding the individual’s heart rate and constricting the blood vessels. Hands get clammy and eyes dilate.

“There is a heightened state of arousal — not sexual arousal, but a very physical change,” Weiss says.

At the same time, the pituitary gland and hypothalamus begin to pump out endorphins, the body’s natural pain relievers, and the endorphins, in turn, crank up production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that opens the pleasure centers of the brain while blocking the pain processors.

And that’s just from looking. Masturbation amps up the dopamine even more. Too much dopamine over time can lead to addiction.

Just as with other addictions, what generated the initial high isn’t enough later on. As tolerance grows, addicts develop an increasing need for greater exposure and a wider variety, Weiss says.

Umm, I don't know what kind of sex this Mr. Weiss is having, but I know that for a lot of people when they get sexually aroused, there's a real physical change. Eyes dilate. Heartbeats increase. Blood flows. There's adrenaline.

It's called D-E-S-I-R-E, and a lot of folks actually like this. And when they have good sex, they just want more good sex. It is not like having sex is letting steam out of an old fashioned steam engine. It's more like stoking the fires of that scary thing, inchoate, non-intellectual, very wondrous thing called desire.

of course porn competes with real-life sex with a woman, in fact many men choose it over real sex. I wonder a sexual therapist has not noticed the new trend?
How could it not cause addiction as one gets used to needing tougher and tougher images to get turned on.
Of course it causes erectile problems in the long run, as men get used to masturbating and so they will require the same movements during real sex with their own hands....

I feel that the professionals should educate us all, on the healthy man/women and/or people in relationships, viewing alone and not sharing their thoughts on their porn use. Educate us on the healthy way's couples can add porn into their sexual activities. as well if not more inportant, educate us on the un-healthy ways we may use porn, how often is too often. What are the signs of enjoying porn start being un-healthy. i would like to know, if my 11 year son, was just busted by his parents, finding out on their computor, that he has been viewing several sites online, of hard core porn. Also found website addresses written down in his school book. What should a parent know? i wish I had information, where I had already read from several different reasoures, which were creditable, like PT. So i knew what this meant? How I was to react, feel about my son, worried, its normal for kids at 11 to find these sites, and discuss them at school. I am just stuck, Idon't know where to start looking for the answers i need, a year ago, that I don't have right now. Which my reaction can mean huge things on my son's development. i don't want him to think I think he is a pervert, which can scar him, or that it is normal, like just don't let me see when your watching it. I do enjoy porn now and then in my sexual relationship, with my son's dad.No our son does not have any idea that we watch porn, as many will say, that's where he got it, parents never think their children know they do anything wrong, or that they could find porn or drugs. In this case i do know, he does not know. I saw that he was just so ashamed, when i don't want him to be ashamed, I want to be able to discuss age apporperate porn issues with him. I want information to be sent out into the world, that is easy access to parents, they'll trip over it, if they don't see and read on the topic. So a parent will have the healthy skills, when something like this happens in their home, or when its time to discus? and whats the healthy ways to have this discussion? at what age? It seems the writtings i have seen are black and white, either "Porn is damaging our youth and future of our Country and the #1 cause of divorse today, band porn...Or Porn is bringing relationships back form the dead, renewing the spark..a healthy way to learn to be sexual with your partner... Porn is not causing people any sexual problems, or addictions they had them before they began to watch it. Porn can't hurt the watcher in any way...Both are wronge!!! please provide healthy information on porn, and how it effects our children, as well as the effects on men and women. the pro's and con's. I think many people and parents have lettle to draw from this topic. thank you

I seriously doubt that Dr. Klein actually knows what type of porn is out there.Sure, you can make the argument that looking at pretty girls having sex won't hurt anything, BUT, these girls on the screen are made up to look almost super human, and some do acts that 99 percent of the real world girls won't.Let's be honest- How many girls will swallow 5 loads and still have a smile on their face? It is HYPER stimulating, I should know, I have quit viewing all porn for 5 weeks now, after 30 plus years of using it.
What Dr. Klein must realize is the type of porn available INSTANTLY to ANYONE is way beyond the scope of what a normal human brain can manage, especially when it is used as a primary release. One can view in 1 hour what most men never saw or experienced in a whole lifetime.
I predict a world full of men who are unable to have sex with a real woman, unless this problem is addressed seriously. There are already numerous 20 year olds out there seeking ED medications, I wonder why....

Thank you for this excellent article - it was a pleasure to read, especially now when anti-porn activists and pseudoscientists of all kinds seem to have flooded almost everything with their sophisticated attempts to induce paranoid feelings and fears about porn.
It is something like a fresh oasis in a desert which have been dried by anti-porn fears and obsessions about "porn addiction" and other similar "threats" which may happen to "bad" people...

I definitely share your view on this issue and I strongly support your activities which you have been doing in this field.
Thanks again.

Memorize this fact: The porn industry makes their product readily available to underage consumers. Tobacco companies were harshly punished for doing the exact same thing.

In a perfect world, my parents would have sheltered me from aggressive online porn marketing. In the real world, I was raised by a single mother. She worked full time. And we youngsters were much more adept at learning to understand the technology used to acquire pornography.

It's my responsibility to make sense of my past exposure to pornography. And I agree that my fellow porn critics are too quick to grasp to any pseudo-scientific information which they think vindicates their contempt for porn.

However, I think this reflects genuine frustration that serious, intelligent people like Mr. Klein refuse to acknowledge the real problems caused by pornographers.

I think that what this article avoids discussing is the harm done to the people that create porn. People that produce porn choose to alienate themselves from society for a paycheck. Porn destroys families. They perform without protection and HPV is rampant in the industry. Their work is hazardous and there is no health insurance. The industry's values are extremely one-dimensional -- women are seen as nymphomaniacs who want sex all the time, anywhere. These women are easily discarded and replaced. It is a poor career choice for them. When they are "retired," they are left with little skills, a substance abuse problem and serious self-esteem issues. The industry cycles though many young women seeking easy money, but is the web designers and the publishers that make a steady paycheck.